Reconnected.

If you checked in with me on Saturday, you saw that I had unplugged, MTV style. While I may agree that this show needs to be brought back (and perhaps combined with VH1 Storytellers into a crazy extravaganza of acoustic intrigue—can’t you just see Lady Gaga trying to explain her songs and then singing them over amp-free guitar and no techno beats?)…this has nothing to do with music.

Friday afternoon, I came home from work and for whatever reason, decided to go on facebook.*

*Does anyone else constantly want to call it ‘the’ facebook since seeing The Social Network? No?

Although I’ve been tweeting like Rockin’ Robin lately, I rarely get on facebook, unless I get an e-mail that someone is having a party or a BBQ or whatnot. [I have found that whereas on the East Coast, everyone uses evites for these things, here in Austin, it's all about the facebook invite.] But it must have been a fated facebook connecting, because the first thing on my newsfeed was information about the Sabbath Manifesto, and the National Day of Unplugging, which was to commence in an hour, lasting over the course of the Jewish Sabbath, from sundown Friday, to sundown Saturday…with the goal of turning off our hyperconnectedness through e-mail, phones, and twitter in order to have a more real connection to the world.

For 24 hours, starting at sundown Friday March 4, 2011, individuals, families and community organizations across the nation reclaimed time, slowed down their lives and reconnected with friends, family, the community and themselves.

The Sabbath Manifesto’s principles were created for individual styling, but for one day we asked you to take on the challenge of Principle Number 1: AVOID TECHNOLOGY.

As most of my decisions are of the “snap” variety, I decided right then and there to see if I could do it. Disconnect to reconnect?

And I may not be Jewish, but I loved the rest of the Sabbath Manifesto’s principles….I mean, I can totally get behind a movement that endorse drinking wine* and eating bread as crucial to happiness.
*Although I would like to point out that this is one of the ten commandments of the Episcopal Church.

So the question became not only—could I unplug for a whole day?—but also, for me: Could I follow the ten principles, not just for 24 hours, but all weekend?

#1: Avoid Technology

I did! I really turned off^ my cell phone at sun down on Friday and didn’t turn it back on until sun down on Saturday. [Granted, I'm not really attached to my phone, as I hate talking on it, and I don't have a smartphone or anything...what's up now? I'm old school. And I like it. (Not like Zack Morris at Bayside old school. But "no touch screen or Internet" old school.)]
^It also ran out of charge. So that made it easy.

I also didn’t blog (that post was scheduled) or check my e-mail….except I had to sign in for a brief moment because my landlord had mailed us our utilities payment, and I wasn’t about to rack up a late charge just because I refused to “plug-in.”

And I only watched 10 minutes of Man v. Food at the gym…but I felt like since Adam Richman is my boyfriend that went with…

#2 Reconnect: Connect With Loved Ones

Since I am, by nature, horrible at staying in touch with people, e-mail or quick texts are usually my only sporadic forms of maintaining connections to my friends and family. [My mom knows I'm alive because she reads the blog...so it's OK.] But my friend Liz is one of those people who still writes letters. Real letters. So I finally sat down and wrote her one back.
Maria must have subliminally known that I was going to unplug, because she sent me a real life postcard in the mail, wishing me a Happy Blog Day Week.She might not be a loved one exactly…but I certainly like her whole heck of a lot.Now, you might be saying, “Sarah, is going to the gym and working out on the elliptical really avoiding technology?” OK, maybe not…but there is no way you are going to find me running the five miles I can easily do on the elliptical. Luckily for me, there is the next Sabbath Manifesto Principle:

#3: Nurture Your Health

So I still exercised (not surprising). I also ate a lot of melon.

(Cantaloupes are 88 cents at HEB this week people!)

And while I was pretending it was already summer with the melon consumption, I thought I might keep one pinky finger wrapped around the ‘fruits’ of winter.

Seriously, spaghetti squash is frickin’ candy to me y’all.I’m pretty sure I could have eaten this whole mountain.Not to be outdone, there was a kabocha squash hanging out on the counter, begging to be cut and cooked.As I lack patience for the “low and slow” method of cooking anything, I ended up with krispy* kabocha. However, it turns out they were like the perfect french fry: crisp on the outside, and chewy on the inside. All I need is some BBQ sauce and I’m set.

*only time it will ever be acceptable for me to misspell crispy

(Packed up for easy cold-from-the-fridge-because-I’m-weird-and-that’s-how-I-like-it consumption.)

On a beautiful weekend such as the one we just had, the next principle was easy:

#4: Get Outside

To be fair, some of my “outside” time was actually spent driving…but I can’t help it if just getting into the car and listening to “Days” by Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers feels like freedom to me.

I did, however, hang out with some chickens.And then eat some chicken.Luckily, I’m not the type of person who finds it weird to talk to the animal she is also about to consume. Nor am I the type of person who will leave the as-yet-unopened bag of chips she brought to the cook-out there when they happen to be her favorite and she’s not sure anyone else will appreciate them in quite the same way.As I mentioned above, I had to deposit my rent check into my landlord’s account, so the next principle was challenging.

#5: Avoid Commerce
I tried, Chase, I really did. But I had to.

And y’all know one of my favorite places to go on the weekend (or any time, really) is the grocery store, so that whole “not buying anything” idea was shot.

I did have an absolutely wonderful personal connection moment with Elisa, the cashier at Sunflower (formerly Newflower*) involving a “Buy 2 Kashi Products and get $1 Off” coupon and this cereal:
*is it an oxymoron that its old name was Newflower?So, I was trying to beat the system, because this was in the clearance section, as it has been discontinued, apparently.My, thinking, of course, was to get the most bang for my buck, and if this was already marked down, and the other Kashi cereals were already on sale…well…I would totally win (I’m not sure at what…life?). But since this cereal was on clearance they told me I couldn’t use the coupon. I shrugged and was going to put it away to save for later…but once the manager left, the cashier whispered, “Give me the coupon,” and rang it up. “We’ve all got to save where we can, girl,” she said. And I wanted to hug her. Also, I am sad this cereal is discontinued…because it is AWESOME. Huge chunks of granola, walnuts, and freeze-dried currants with an all-around subtly sweet currant flavor. Wowza…sad that’s not going to be around anymore.But out with the old…and in with the NEW!
What? Yet another new Kashi cereal?Yeppers. Not only have they rolled out the Berry Blossoms, Kashi is attempting to recreate Honey Bunches of Oats.
And, sadly, I would much rather eat the real thing. The best thing about Honey Bunches of Oats are the bunches…and there just aren’t any in this Golden Goodness. The flakes are, however, SUPER tiny, which makes it like having a whole box of bottom-of-the-bag crumblies, which, for most people would mean soggy cereal, but for me, means deliciousness mixed with yogurt.
I totally failed in #6: Light Candles. I actually forgot about that one, and since I couldn’t get back online to check all of the principles, I didn’t realize it until now. Oh well. At least this means I didn’t set anything on fire.

I totally made #7: Drink Wine happen.
And #8: Eat Bread. (If you count eating bread with my spaghetti….but mostly just eating spaghetti. And mainly just the sauce. I mean, y’all know I’d rather have a bowl full of sauce than any whole grain mess getting in my way.)

I followed #9: Find Silence by catching up on some reading over my Saturday morning coffee, rather than drinking it in front of the TV.When it came to #10: Give Back, I know I probably should have done some charity work, or at least taken some clothes to Goodwill or something. But I DID come up with the last two of my Texas Beef Council-sponsored recipes…(I realize I now owe you three of those four recipes.)

Mango & Bell Pepper Beef Curry

Since they are giving me a stipend, I guess creating the recipes is sort of like giving back….right?

[Source]

In case you were wondering.